By Nick O'Malley

9 November 2018 — 2:54pm

Emma Husar, the Labor federal MP forced from her seat over unsubstantiated allegations of sexual impropriety, says the scandal that has engulfed former opposition leader Luke Foley reveals significant failures within the NSW branch of the Labor Party.

Emma Husar and Luke Foley at a rally at Nepean Hospital in August.Credit:Fairfax Media

But she noted that rumours about Mr Foley’s behaviour had been openly discussed in Labor circles for many months, and that the organisation had failed to act on them.

By contrast, she said Labor went to extraordinary lengths and great expense investigating claims made about her by a staff member she had sacked. Some of those allegations had already been dismissed by Fair Work Australia.

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Ms Husar said she was also disturbed that in Parliament Mr Foley threatened to go public with rumours of impropriety concerning government ministers.

"What if any of those rumours are true? There are women involved there, too. If he knows something that is worthy of reporting he should report it. If he doesn’t he should shut up. The politics should not come into it.

"This is what powerful men do to women in politics. It was the same thing in my situation. A bunch of men more powerful than me decided how they could use information about me.

"For two years I asked Labor head office for help [in managing my office] and I got none. Then someone used that information to destroy me."

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Ms Husar announced she would not recontest for the federal seat of Lindsay earlier this year after a secret investigation being conducted into allegations brought by a sacked staffer were leaked to the media.

The investigation concluded that the most serious claim - that she had exposed herself to a colleague - could not be supported and on the balance of probabilities did not happen. The colleague also denied the incident took place. The report concluded, "there is no basis for Ms Husar to resign from the Australian Parliament".

But it found allegations that Ms Husar had subjected some staff to, "unreasonable management, including unreasonable communication, demands, practices and disciplinary methods" did have merit.